The Exo
by Ragashingo
Summary: Abner 4c6173746e616d65, like many Guardians, had an unpleasant past. He plans to more than make up for that in the future. (3/3 in a series following Little Lights in the Darkness and The Legends)
1. The Search

Memory was a funny thing Abner 4c6173746e616d65 had long since concluded. The bytes that had once stored his last name, for instance, were corrupted beyond repair. Trying to access them resulted in little more than a string of gibberish no one could decipher. Gone too, was his memory of the Golden Age he was originally built for, though that seemed to be a common trait among Exos, the implications of which were troubling to ponder. He had lost so much, and yet, he could remember with perfect clarity each of the forty-three Ghost he'd seen over the past centuries. Ghost 2 had been the first one he'd seen revive a 'Guardian'. Ghost 5 had been the one whose distant speech had brought the name for these chosen few to his audio inputs. Ghost 7 had been the one to take the briefest moment out of its search to confirm to him the rumors of The Traveler's survival and of a last safe city. In reality, it had been Ghost 7 who had set him on his long, long journey. Certainly it had turned out to be a much longer journey than he had original planned.

The Earth was only forty thousand kilometers round. The City was somewhere to the east. Unfortunately, it had not been as simple as walking in that direction. While his joints and artificial muscles did not tire, his mind did with each setting of the sun. Why a mechanical being needed sleep still baffled him, though it was not the need for sleep that delayed his progress, it was the world in which he now existed. Or what was left of it. Tireless workers, whose bodies worked nearly as well sleeping every third day as a Human's did getting a nightly rest, were a valuable resource… and commodity. To claim he had been bought and sold more times than he could count would be a lie, that part of his memory remained undamaged, but it _was_ a number high enough that he rarely spoke of it. Even now.

It soon became a cycle. Decades of labor would be followed by weeks or months or years of bargaining, pleading, or coercing for his freedom... To say nothing of his not so occasional escapes. Freedom would allow for days or weeks of travel. It had been a joy when he finally boarded a ship sailing across the ocean, though that, regrettably, marked his longest continual period of travel. More often, he would only make it as far as the next horizon before being claimed by another town or ruler. Rarely, he'd be lucky enough to cross a long deserted shipping channel, or make it from one climate to another before having to once again surrender his freedom. Then, the cycle would repeat.

He'd had sections of his memory erased at least twice. How one remembered that their memory had been erased was another one of those questions that he sometimes pondered… that sometimes haunted him. The times before the collapse, his past life, his past purpose, they were all gone forever. But, despite it all, he never lost sight of his goal. Remembering the Ghosts helped, as did seeing the glints in the night sky always coming and going from some location far to the southeast. For some reason those memories had survived the centuries when so many others hadn't.

The first time he had encountered Fallen had been the last time he'd been someone else's property. He had been forced into construction in the city of Kodinsk, building fortifications in one warlord's efforts to thwart another's when the first Ketch had made it's grand entrance. He'd fought for a short time, protecting those who needed it… who deserved it… but in the chaos that followed he'd been able to make his escape. From then on he'd made good, steady progress towards The City, making it as far as a town called Zima before again encountering the scavenging aliens. His second encounter with them should have been his last…

Some claimed his kind had been created as weapons of war, but if that had been true then why had his body been built so fragile? Why had it only taken a half-dozen shots, three of which had missed, for them send him to the crashing to the ground?

What had the last multiple hundreds of years really meant, he wondered as the last remnants of his vision fluctuated, if his biggest accomplishment was to die unknown and forgotten?

"Eyes up, Guardian!" _his_ Ghost had instructed a mere three days later. Abner had laughed a long, joyous laugh before replying:

"I've been searching for you, for centuries!"


	2. The Third

Tesni cringed as she saw the high caliber sniper round tear through Natela's side. The Hunter, almost twenty years her junior, staggered and fell, but to Tesni's surprise she threw herself into the fall and managed to roll behind one of the First Light complex's smaller gold-glassed geodesic domes. For the next few seconds the younger woman waited, holding her side, obviously in pain, but then she got back into a crouch and held her hand cannon at the ready.

"I'm fine… It hurt, but I'm fine," the Hunter said over their radio link. Maybe she was learning after all!

"Two are advancing on you," Tesni relayed. "I pinged the one on the left a couple of times before they forced my head down…"

"I see them on the tracker. They're mine," Natela said with confidence.

Tesni couldn't help but smile as her teammate put away her hand gun and pulled out her knife. Despite her youth and inexperience, there were still few more skilled with an Arc Blade that Natela Tamaya Murk. The already brightly lit lunar landscape surrounding the Hunter became a bit brighter still as her blade flashed then glowed with focused Arc Light. Natela waited and waited, then threw herself around the corner. Her two pursuers tried to ready their weapons, but they were far too slow. Natela _blinked_ forward and slashed into the nearer Guardian. He vanished in an instant. The other had quicker reflexes. He managed to throw a grenade at her feet, but she evaded it and struck him down as well. Both he and his colleague reappeared on the far side of the lunar habitat a few moments later barely comprehending what'd just happened.

"Very good…" Tesni congratulated her ward, but a familiar, ominous sound cut short any further praise. "Interceptor!" she warned a second before the first of its rockets detonated beside her. Her shield and heavy armor ablated the majority of the explosion, but that only gave Tesni enough time to turn and catch a glimpse of the rocket that would end her current life. Natela didn't fare any better. Out of position after her successful knife attacks, she was easy prey for the small hovering tank.

"I know you're pretty good about watching my back," Natela complained after the match ended, "but we really need to find someone to watch yours!"

"It's just a loss," Tesni replied as they waited for the Anastasia to arrive from orbit. "Sometimes we're going to lose. How well you did personally, how you acted and reacted, is what matters right now. Besides, I already told you I'm working on it…"

"You've said that before…"

That evening, Natela received an invitation from an Abner 4c6173746e616d65 inviting her to lunch at a restaurant on one of the lower levels of The Tower. She was going to delete it, but thought better of it.

"Who is this?" Natela had sent to her mentor, forwarding the message to her.

"Abner is a very old, very skilled Exo with deep connections," Tesni had replied. "If he is inviting you to something it must be important. Plan to go."

Two days later, Natela arrived at the appropriate location at the appropriate time only to find Tesni waiting there for her.

"I know this Warlock," Tesni said, explaining her presence. "He is very… in it for himself. I didn't feel comfortable with you meeting with him without me. He'd be willing to mess with you, but not so much with me around."

"Thanks… I think. I was a little nervous," Natela admitted. Together, they entered the restaurant and located Abner waiting at a small circular table set next to a large window overlooking The City. He stood as they approached, giving them each a small, polite bow, though his gaze remained fixed on Tesni.

"Natela, this is Abner," Tesni said by way of introductions. "We've worked together out in the field before. We don't always see eye to eye, but he is good in a firefight,"

"As are you, Ms. Jarmila. I did not expect you to be here though. Still looking out for those around you, I see," the Exo replied, his tone conveying his admiration and distrust of her where his unmoving robotic face could not. "Sit, both of you," he insisted. "We cannot do any business unless you sit."

The two women pulled up chairs and sat. As they did, a waiter quickly stopped by and left the two of them glasses of tea.

"The service is prompt here. I like it," he said as he retook his own seat. "Now then, I hear you are looking for a third to enter into those _games_ with you. Tesni, I have told you many times what I think of the Crucible have I not and yet you still come to me with this?"

"You invited us," Tesni said flatly.

"Technically, I invited her," Abner replied correctly.

"What do you think of it…The Crucible?" Natela couldn't help asking, despite the tension at the table.

"Little light, I have lived a very long time. While your mentor here was relaxing blissfuly on a beach I was hard at work for the benefit of others. My life was not my own and my choices were not mine to make. I will not allow such a thing to happen again. My choice, currently, is to not fight for the enjoyment of others."

"You're a Guardian. Fighting for others is what _we_ do," Natela replied, a little more sharply than she had intended.

"For others, for ourselves. There will always be wars to fight," Abner said, dismissing her comment.

"Not if we work together to end them!" Natela exclaimed over his more gently spoken words.

"Ah, you are as feisty as I hear you are," Abner commented. "I am surprised though that you do not follow in the _opinions_ of the legend here," he said knowingly, turning back to Tesni. "Hoarding supplies and running away is still the best option, is it not?" he asked her, a slight goad evident in his voice. The blue skinned Titan shook her head.

"I didn't come here to debate with you, Abner. We lost two Guardians last month, one was a friend of mine. If Natela had been up to speed we might have lost none. They trained her like any of us, but she is not like us. She's learning, but she doesn't have the combat experience you and I had… from _before_…"

"I see," Abner said softly, noting how the previously high spirited Hunter shrank back into her chair at the reference to her mistakes.

"It's an uphill battle trying to teach her and fend for myself at the same time," Tesni continued. "They aren't exactly going easy on me in there… So, no more of your 'I hears.' If you are offering to help us then say so. Otherwise we will be on our way."

The robed Exo tilted his head slightly as if in thought then addressed Natela once more. "_I hear_," he said with a quick glance back to Tesni, "that you fight for the health of your sister, correct?" The tone of his voice said he would have been smiling cryptically if he'd been able.

"How did you? I haven't even told…" Natela blurted before wisely covering her mouth.

"So then, it's true? Fascinating." Abner said simply. "I will help you," he said to Tesni.

"Wait… You will?" Natela asked in surprise.

"Very few of us have anything but the most distant of family, if that, Little Light. And very few of us fight solely for the benefit of others, yet you do. For that you should be rewarded, and for that I will help teach you how to remain _alive_."

"…And what do you get out of it?" Natela asked, eyes narrowing in suspicion. Tesni locked eyes with the Warlock as well, silently seconding the question.

"Perceptive, isn't she?" Abner asked Tesni after a tense moment. She could hear the slight smile in his voice.

"She can be," Tesni responded coldly. "The answer?"

"FWC has heard rumors of a prize on Venus. If I do this for you then you, and you," he said looking to Tesni then Natela, "will help me claim it."

"What's the prize?" Tesni asked.

"A Vault of Glass."


End file.
